Cherry cheesecake cookies

Here is a fun cookie I found over on Mel's kitchen cafe.  It is one of my favorite recipe blogs.  These were a lovely, novel, tasty cookie.  I loved that the red made them seem Chirstmasy for our goodie plates as well.  Yum!
She says they only make 2 dozen, but it made 4 dozen for us.

Ingredients

• 3 1/2 cups flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 8 oz packages cream cheese (I used the 1/3 less fat with no problems although they are probably richer with the regular stuff.)
• 2 1/2 sticks butter, softened (1 1/4 cup)
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 cup graham cracker crumbs (I didn't measure, we just ground 1 package in the food processor and had some left over.)
• 2 cans (20 oz.) cherry pie filling (we used the premium more cherries and still needed the second can, but not much of it.)

Directions

1. Combine flour, baking powder and salt in a bowl.  In another bowl with an electric mixer, beat cream cheese, butter and sugar until smooth and creamy, about 2 minutes.  Add eggs and vanilla and mix until incorporated.  Reduce speed to low and add flour mixture.  Mix just until combined.  Refrigerate until dough is firm.  (at least 30 minutes.)
2. Preheat oven to 350.  Line baking sheets with parchment.  Place graham crackers in a bowl.  
3. Roll dough into 1 1/2 inch balls, then roll the balls in graham cracker crumbs.   Place balls 2 inches apart on prepared baking sheets. Using a Tablespoon measure, make an indentation in the center of each ball. (I tried something smaller -like my 1/2 Tablespoon - it was too small for 3 cherries to fit - use the Tablespoon.  It is perfect size.)  Place 3 cherries in the dimple.  Bake 12 to 14 minutes - until golden brown.  Cool for 5 minutes on the sheet then transfer to a cooling rack to cool completely.

raspberry cream puffs

Goodie number 2 for the day was cream puffs.  (although I have yet to make the cream to go in them.)  I have never actually tried to make cream puffs before.  They were surprisingly easy. (other than the fact that it gave me a really good arm workout from stirring.)   The recipe is from this month's Everyday food magazine.  First time I have tried that magazine.  I'm not a huge fan of they way they type the recipes up.  They don't list the ingredients in a list.  Oh well, this was a fun new recipe so I'm not going to complain too much.
I followed their recipe exactly for the puffs, I made up my own middle, and followed their directions again for the glaze.  Alone the puffs are quite eggy.  To be expected I'm sure since that seems to be what makes them puff.  However, with the cream and chocolate they are quite good.  I should have taken a better picture - maybe one with the cream puff cut in half - oops.  This is the best I have - never claimed to be a photographer.  :)

The puffs:
Ingredients

• 1 cup water
• 1/2 cup butter
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 1 cup flour
• 4 large eggs

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 425.  Line 2 cookie sheet with parchment paper (I ran out and used non-stick aluminum foil.)  In a small saucepan bring water, butter and sugar to a boil over high heat.
2. Immediately remove from heat.  With a wooden spoon, stir in flour.  Continue to stir until mixture pulls away from sides of the pan. (recipe said 2 minutes, took more like 30 seconds.)  Let cool 2 minutes.
3. Add eggs 1 at a time, mixing after each addition until batter comes together.  (the arm workout part.)
4. Transfer batter to a large zip-top bag.  Twist and squeeze bag so batter is in one corner.  With scissors, snip a 1/2 inch opening in the corner.
5. Pipe batter into desired size mounds on cookie sheet 1 inch apart. (I made mine between 1 and 1 1/2 teaspoons in size.  It made between about 80 puffs)  With a wet finger, smooth pointy tops.  Bake 10 minutes.  Reduce oven temperature to 350 and bake until puffs are golden brown and feel light and hollow inside, 20-30 minutes.  Let cool on sheets on wire racks.

The filling and assembly instructions

Ingredients

• 1 8 oz package neufchatel (1/3 less fat cream cheese), softened
• 4 oz. fat free cool whip 
• 1/3 cup raspberry jam

Directions

1. Beat the cream cheese and jam until smooth and creamy.  Fold in the cool whip.
2. To fill puffs;  Use a toothpick to make a hole in the bottom of the puff.  Place cream cheese mixture in a zip top bag or pastry bag fit with a large holed icing tip.  (recipe showed just the bag with a 1/4 inch opening snipped in the bottom,  but I thought it would be easier to stick something hard and metal in the opening of the puff than something soft and plastic.)  Fill puffs with cream mixture.  

The glaze

Ingredients

• 4 oz semisweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
• 1 Tablespoon light corn syrup
• 1/2 cup heavy cream

Directions

1. Heat cream just to a boil.  Immediately pour over chocolate and let sit 2 minutes.  Stir until mixture is smooth.  (Wow, should have followed these directions.  I didn't chop the chocolate and just started stirring when I poured the boiling cream over the chocolate.  I wasn't fond of the method -upon reading directions more carefully I see why.  I can tell it was the end of a very long cooking day. :)
2. Dip top half of each puff in chocolate glaze.  Place on foil lined baking sheet (just to avoid the mess) and refrigerate, uncovered for 30 minutes or up to 2 hours.  (Hmm, mine are going to stay there ovenight.  Hope they are fine.)

Raspberry poinsettia blossoms

So, I'm totally slow in getting my Christmas goodies out this year, so today I got busy and got half of it done.  Will get the other half done tomorrow.  This is what I started with in the morning because the dough had to refrigerate.  They were simple, and good, but actually quite sweet with the jello in there.  I used a sugar free jello mix because it is what I had on hand, and it worked fine.

Ingredients

• 3/4 cup butter or margarine, softened (I used butter)
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 box (4 serving size) raspberry flavored gelatin
• 1 egg
• 2 cups flour
• 2 Tablespoons yellow candy sprinkles

Directions

1. In a large bowl, bream butter, sugar, vanilla and egg.  Beat in flour
2. Shape the dough into 1 1/4 inch balls.  cover and refrigerate 1 hour.
3. Heat oven to 375.  On ungreased cookie sheet, place balls about 2 inches apart.  With a sharp knife, make 3 cuts in the top of the ball (to cut it in 1/6ths) about 3/4 the way through to make 6 wedges.  Spread wedges apart slightly to form flower petals.  (cookies will separate and flatten as they bake.)  Sprinkle candy sprinkles into center of each cookie.
4. Bake 9-11 minutes or until set and edges begin to brown.  cool 2-3 minutes, remove from cookie sheets to cooling rack.

Pecan-Rum Bars

I made these pecan bars out of the same Pillsbury recipe book as the mint brownies. They were also tasty. Had a couple of issues with the recipe - they are noted below with the recipe. The recipe also had an icing, but I didn't make it, so I didn't include the recipe for it.


Ingredients

Crust

• 1 cup butter, softened
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 2 cups flour

Filling

• 2 eggs
  
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup dark corn syrup
• 1 teaspoon rum extract
• 2 cups pecan halves

Directions

1. Heat oven to 375. Grease bottom and sides of 9X13 pan with cooking spray (do not use dark pan).
2. In meduim bowl, beat 1 cup butter and 1 cup brown sugar with electric mixer on low speed until creamy. Stir in flour. Press evenly in pan.
3. Bake 12 to 14 minutes or until edges are golden brown and center springs back when touched lightly. (I did 14 minutes, it wasn't golden brown. Probably needed more time, and it was a bit runny for the next step to work well, but I wouldn't change the time or it would burn.)
4. Meanwhile, in medium bowl, mix all filling ingredients except pecans. Stir in pecans. Pour over crust, spreading pecans evenly. (This was not easy. The crust pushed up around the edges and sunk somewhat in the middle. I had to kind of spoon the sauce around to get any on the edges. But like I said, I wouldn't cook the crust more because it would burn with the time I had to cook the filling to get it to set.)
5. Bake 12 to 15 minutes or until filling is set. (This took me more like 20-25 minutes. I started with 12 minutes and added 3 minutes 3 or 4 times before it was set.) Cool completely, about 1 hour. For bars, cut into 8 rows by 4 rows.